Horror Vacui | |
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Directed by | Rosa von Praunheim |
Screenplay by |
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Produced by | Rosa von Praunheim |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Elfi Mikesch |
Edited by |
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Music by | Marran Gosov |
Production company | Rosa Von Praunheim Filmproduktion |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | West Germany |
Horror Vacui (German : Horror Vacui - Die Angst vor der Leere) is a 1984 German avant-garde film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. [1]
The film was shown at international film festivals and in 1985 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. [2]
Shot in a neo-expressionist style, the film is a satire on cults of any kind. The plot follows Frankie and Hannes, a young gay couple living in Berlin. One is studying art and the other medicine. Their happy life is disrupted when Frankie attends a lecture and quickly becomes involved in a sinister cult operating as a self-help group called "Optimal Optimism". 'Madame C', a former Nazi party member, is the leader of 'Optimal Optimism'. When the cult members find out that Frankie is gay, they rape him. Hannes has to find a way to save him. [3] [1]
"If you have a soft spot for fantastic and ironic films, you won't feel any inner emptiness [horror vacui] with Praunheim's wealth of fantasy." (Cinema Film Journal) [5]
New German Cinema is a period in West German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism, gained notice by producing a number of "small" motion pictures that caught the attention of art house audiences. These filmmakers included Percy Adlon, Harun Farocki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Fleischmann, Werner Herzog, Alexander Kluge, Ulli Lommel, Wolfgang Petersen, Volker Schlöndorff, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Werner Schroeter, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Margarethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders. As a result of the attention they garnered, they were able to create better-financed productions which were backed by the big US studios. However, most of these larger films were commercial failures and the movement was heavily dependent on subsidies. By 1977, 80% of a budget for a typical West German film was ensured by a subsidy.
Werner Schroeter was a German film director, screenwriter, and opera director known for his stylistic excess. Schroeter was cited by Rainer Werner Fassbinder as an influence both on his own work and on German cinema at large.
The Einstein of Sex is a 1999 German film by Rosa von Praunheim. The plot follows the life of the Jewish doctor, sexologist, and gay socialist Magnus Hirschfeld.
Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky, known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous queer activists in the German-speaking world. A pioneer of Queer Cinema and gay activist from the very beginning, von Praunheim was a key co-founder of the modern lesbian and gay movement in Germany and Switzerland. He was an early advocate of AIDS awareness and safer sex. His films center on queer-related themes and strong female characters, are characterized by excess and employ a campy style. They have featured such personalities as Keith Haring, Larry Kramer, Diamanda Galás, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Judith Malina, Jeff Stryker, Jayne County, Divine, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and a row of Warhol superstars. In over 50 years, von Praunheim has made more than 150 films. His works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ movements worldwide.
Tally Brown was an American singer and actress who was part of the New York underground performance scene, particularly Andy Warhol's "Factory" and who appeared in or was the subject of films by Andy Warhol and Rosa von Praunheim. She was born and died in New York City.
I Am My Own Woman is a 1992 German semi-documentarian film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film attracted international attention and was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival in 1993, for example.
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives is a 1971 German avant-garde film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Neurosia: 50 Years of Perversity is a 1995 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Positive is a 1990 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film received international resonance.
Silence = Death is a 1990 documentary film directed, written, and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film received international resonance.
Anita: Dances of Vice is a 1987 German avant-garde film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
City of Lost Souls is a 1983 German musical film directed by Rosa von Praunheim and performed by drag queens, travesty artists and transgender people. The film received international attention and became a cult movie beyond the LGBT community.
Tally Brown, New York is a 1979 documentary film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim, centring around the career of Tally Brown.
A Virus Knows No Morals is a 1986 German film directed, written and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. It was one of the first feature films about AIDS worldwide.
Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts is a 1979 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Affengeil is a 1990 German semi-documentarian film by Rosa von Praunheim. The film was shown at the 1991 Toronto International Film Festival and 1992 at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, among others.
Dolly, Lotte and Maria is a 1987 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film recounts the lives of Lotte Goslar, Dolly Haas and Maria Ley-Piscator, three German women performers who achieved success in Berlin in the 1930s. All left Nazi Germany for reasons of conscience, and eventually settled in the United States. After the war, all three remained in America and continued actively pursuing their careers, with mixed success. Each discusses her beginnings as a performer, her achievements in Europe, the reasons that motivated her to leave Germany, her decision to move to the U.S., and her current activities.
Red Love is a 1982 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim.
Joaquín La Habana is a queer singer, dancer, actor and drag artist.
The Bed Sausage is a 1971 German camp film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. Became a cult film and was followed in 1975 by the sequel Berlin Bed Sausage.